Urgent demand made to revive Alabama gambling dream

Article by : Charles Perrin Jun 7, 2024

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Alabama is being urged to revisit legalized gambling by David G. Bronner, CEO of the state’s pension fund.

An ongoing battle to impose legalized gaming in Alabama, has spanned 25 years, and initially, a gambling bill sailed through the House by a decisive 72-29 vote.

However, the bill ultimately died in the Senate where it came up one vote short.

With inflation escalating, Bronner, who is head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, wants to see Gov. Kay Ivey convene a special session to embolden the push to legalize Alabama gambling.

As things stand, there are no commercial casinos or card rooms in the state, and the best online casinos are social and sweepstakes casinos.

Revenue appears to be the driving force behind the renewed attempts to bring legalized gambling back to the table.

Bronner made the plea in the June edition of The Advisor, a newsletter that is distributed to state employees.

In it, he stipulates that there are several key areas where state agencies have been “grossly underfunded” and many Alabamians currently don’t have access to affordable health coverage.

Normally, a state would turn to tax increases to garner more revenue for programs, however, Alabama has the second-lowest per capita tax burden in the US.

Discussing the matter, Bronner wrote: “Anti-gaming folks might suggest increasing Alabama’s property taxes, which are the lowest in America, to replace this revenue, but this has been impossible to accomplish in the past.

“The House’s gaming legislation would have fixed this and, more importantly, would have brought in a new stream of revenue for the state.”

Bronner impressed the need to “move forward” and not form a “firing squad within a circle”, however, the clock is ticking.

Whether Alabamian legislators will get the answer they are looking for remains to be seen, but Bronner doesn’t want things simply to dissipate.